› added 10 years ago

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TIL that when Martin Scorsese read the book Wiseguy, which he would eventually adapt into the classic mob film Goodfellas, he called author Nicholas Pileggi and said, “I’ve been waiting for this book my entire life” to which Pileggi replied “I’ve been waiting for this phone call my entire life.”

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ADWX4 TIL During WWII, the German army used a radar system called Wotan. The British scientist R.V. Jones figured out how the system worked by assuming that it used a single beam based on the fact that the Germanic god Wotan had only one eye.
OoGEa TIL: the US government has paid out 7 billion dollars in settlements to people poisoned by the US nuclear industry
0d0Dp TIL in 2005, Joaquin Phoenix flipped his car. He heard someone tell him to "just relax". Phoenix replied, "I'm fine. I am relaxed." The man replied, "No, you're not." The man then stopped Phoenix from lighting a cigarette while gasoline was leaking into the car cabin. The man was Werner Herzog.
KOBB6 TIL the is a term for an "act of throwing someone or something out of a window" called defenestration. It originated in Prague when on two occasions (1419 and 1618) government officials where thrown out of windows, both times starting a war (the Hussite and Thirty Years War)
67Am TIL Saint Philosophus, before he was martyred, was tied to a bed by his persecutors. They then sent in a prostitute, in an attempt to take away his chastity before he died. With no other options, he bit off his tongue and spat it at the prostitute, who was so horrified that she ran from the room.